This provided a pathway for spirituality to the early Vedic thinkers. For these founding ideologists, this pathway led to the notion that there are multiple deistic beings which can occupy all manner of space and mental plane, a sharp-departure from the 'ethical monotheism' that underscores most western religious traditions. This, perhaps, more than any other quality, helps to illustrate the common ground between Hinduism and Buddhism, which Prothero goes to even greater lengths to show are distinctly eastern in their theological orientation. Due to its origins in India, Buddhism was perceived in its earliest form by many as a mere sect of Hindu rather than a philosophy of its own foundations. Its practitioners, leading into the Common Era, were a statistically modest population of Indians who placed a spiritual emphasis "on experience over belief. Buddhism never had a creed or catechism until the American convert Henry Steel Olcott decided in the late nineteenth century that any self-resepcting religion needed both. This relative indifference toward religion's doctrinal dimension is rooted in the Buddha's celebrated refusal to speculate." (Prothero, p. 173)

In this respect, Prothero makes the argument that like Hinduism, Buddhism is pointedly non-declarative in its belief in a single god. In fact, the practice of monism is common in...

59) Again, like animism, this suggests the presence of some spiritual force in all things and not just in the definable form of a single deity.
Summary/Conclusion:

As the discussion notes, the western perspective which drives our key sources also helps to demonstrate the distinct of evolution of both Hinduism and Buddhism there from. In both, a cultural identity has forged two religious traditions that look for spiritual guidance in forms other than those traditionally described in monotheistic faiths. Namely, the proclivities toward polytheism, animism and monism have underscored religious practices which tend to incline more interpretive worship, more individualized paths of orientation and less rigid moral codes than those which are found in practicing Judeo-Christian contexts. Quite to this point, it may be suggested that distinct cultural, social and geographical patterns play a direct role in the way that religious traditions tend to evolve. The sharp lines of distinction between eastern and western modes of worship give foundation to this suggestion.

Works Cited:

Neusner, J. (2003). World Religions in America. Westminster John Knox Press.

Prothero, S. (2010). God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions the Run the World. HarperOne.